Articles by Rob Buckley

About Rob Buckley
I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.
Website YouTube LinkedIn

Thursday’s slightly greyer news

3 May 2007 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Doctor Who

Audio plays

  • Lots of Big Finish stuff is happening, including a third season of Sapphire and Steel

Film

  • Commit mental suicide: watch the trailer for Rush Hour 3
  • A picture of the final Iron Man suit
  • Michael Mann’s going to direct a film noir starring Leonardo DiCaprio

(Media) journalism

  • The Daily Mail wants to change its brand association from ‘Middle England’ to ‘Modern Mid Britain’. Good luck on that one, you frothing at the mouth loons [free registration required]
  • John Pilger is giving a talk about Freedom Next Time on 31st May. Includes a screening of Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror

Theatre

  • The cast of The Importance of Being Earnest are going walkabout tomorrow, starting in Trafalgar Square at 4.30pm

British TV

  • Sky has 340,000 new subscribers and 25% of its subscribers use Sky+ [free registration required]
  • Timewatch is 25
  • A new Abigail’s Party is being planned by the Beeb [subscription required]

US TV

  • Ruin the ending of this season of CSI for yourself (at least I didn’t put it in the headline, unlike a certain site and newspaper. Grrr…) [spoilers!]
  • HBO does Sex and the City again, except in Africa this time
  • Killing off all your cast limits you, apparently, says 24 co-exec producer David Fury
  • Thomas Dekker didn’t have a problem being gay on Heroes, he says
  • Masters of Science Fiction finally emerges into the schedules
  • Because television really is weird, how about a pirate reality TV show. No, really. Sixteen people are going to compete on CBS to become the Pirate Master

Wednesday’s news

2 May 2007 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Film

Commercials

  • Mena Suvari is next up to face the ‘Orange film funding board’

Theatre

  • The Reduced Shakespeare Company returns to the West End from June 12

British TV

US TV

Keep/starting watching Heroes. Plus CSI science?

1 May 2007 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

UK viewers: if you haven’t been watching Heroes on SciFi or hadn’t been planning on watching it when it arrived on BBC2, reconsider now. Cos I promise you you’ll be giggling like 12-years-old thanks to the sheer unadulterated coolness of the show by the end of the series (or at least by last night’s episode, which was episode 20, BTW).

Also, I know CSI: Miami is a load of old rubbish, but I draw the line at this kind of inane cobblers coming out the mouth of a forensic scientist: “when gasoline burns, it produces carbon dioxide and there was no trace of carbon dioxide on your clothes”; and “that fire wasn’t going to start until you introduced oxygen into the mix.”

Seriously, there’s fudging science for entertainment purposes and then there’s the level of giving David Caruso one of Professor Zarkov’s rays to zap criminals with. CSI: Miami has now gone too far.

More day-off news

1 May 2007 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Film/Comics

  • A new trailer for The Fantastic Four
  • Mandrake The Magician finally has a director. Seriously? They think we want an adaptation of that?
  • Robert Downey Jr explains the politics of Iron Man.
  • Hugh Laurie and the other Chris Evans join the cast of Night Watch
  • Mel Gibson’s planning a sequel to Maverick?
  • It’s all go on The Mummy 3: 26-year-old Luke Ford will play Brendan Fraser’s son, Michelle Yeoh will play the wizard and they’re recasting Rachel Weisz

US TV

News

Monday morning day-off news

30 April 2007 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Comic Doctor

You’d never guess I wasn’t supposed to be working today, would you? Must. Work. Harder…

Doctor Who

Films

  • Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse will be two separate movies in the UK. The first part will be out on September 21st
  • Iron Man will have both the original grey and the more famous red and gold suits
  • Frost-Nixon is being made into a movie with Frank Langella as Nixon. Will Michael Sheen get to be Frost again?
  • Ridley Scott to direct revisionist Robin Hood film Nottingham, with Russell Crowe as the brave and good Sheriff
  • Daniel Craig doesn’t like having his bottom snapped, allegedly
  • Darren Aronofsky wants to make a film about Noah
  • Gordon Ramsay: the movie?
  • Old Clive Owen mini-series Second Sight to be adapted

Technology

British TV

  • Freesat’s been given the all-clear by the BBC Trust. Good news: it’ll be futureproof
  • Richard Herring talks about his new sitcom

US TV

  • New characters for Adult Swim
  • Conan O’Brien blames NBC for the demise of Andy Barker, PI
  • Studio 60‘s coming back on May 24 in the current ER slot
  • Whatever happened to Masters of Science Fiction?
  • The UK’s Man Stroke Woman to be remade by and with Sean Hayes